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Getting to Hawai'i
By Robert Bone
Special to The Advertiser
For centuries, the world did not know how to get to Hawai'i, simply because they didn’t even know it was there.
Then the only people who learned how to reach the Islands were Polynesians from Tahiti and the Marquesas, and some of them colonized the islands. Perhaps 2,000 years ago, these intrepid navigators began making round-trip voyages in large ocean-going double-hulled canoes.
The Spanish may have reached Hawaii in the 16th century. There’s an intriguing map dated 1555 that seems to plot some of the islands. But the official western discovery of Hawaii is credited to Captain James Cook of the Royal British Navy, who came across the islands in 1778.
By the time of Cook’s arrival, the Hawaiians no longer made long, difficult sea voyages. They had everything they needed right here in the islands, and the odysseys of their ancestors were recounted mostly as myths and legends.
In the nineteenth century, it was possible to book passage between the U.S. and Hawaii on various sailing vessels. Mark Twain did it. So did Herman Melville and other writers who began telling the world about the charms of the Islands.
Then in the early twentieth century, modern ocean liners began making the trips from the U.S. West Coast. These voyages continued up to World War II, and then for a few years even after the war was over. (During the war, almost the only way to get to Hawaii was to join the military.)
The China clipper and other commercial propeller aircraft began making long, slow, 10-hour flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Honolulu. Then, in 1959 – the same year Hawaii became a state – jet passenger planes finally began landing in Honolulu, cutting the former flying time in half.
Today, there are jet flights on several airlines direct to Honolulu, Kauai, Maui, and Kona (on the Big Island) from several cities in the U.S. or Canada, and to Honolulu from several countries in the Pacific and Asia, notably New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Federated States of Micronesia and others.
It comes as a surprise to some that Hawaii is so far away and isolated. Approximately 2500 miles southwest of Los Angeles, the state is approximately on the same latitude as Mexico City. And it’s about as far from the U.S. West Coast as the West Coast is from the East Coast.
New Yorkers often seem to think that Hawaii is about as far from Los Angeles as is Catalina Island – perhaps barely visible just offshore. Hawaii residents are sometimes awakened by business calls in the middle of the night from New York, the callers not realizing that there is at least a five-hour time difference between the two – six hours in the summer; unlike most of the U.S., Hawaii does not go onto Daylight Savings Time.
Airline routes change frequently, but generally speaking you can fly direct or non-stop to Hawaii from the U.S. on any of several different airlines. All, of course, offer jet service, but passengers may want to ask which flights are in single-aisle planes and which offer two-aisle "jumbo" jet service.
Chicago-based United Airlines, http://www.ual.com carries the most passengers, and they sometimes refer to Hawaii as "our own little corner of the world." Other American carriers with frequent flights to the Islands include American, http://www.aa.com, Continental, http://www.flycontinental.com, Delta, http://www.delta-air.com, Northwest, http://www.nwa.com, and Trans-World Airlines, http://www.twa.com. Some groups also run charters on non-scheduled airlines.
Two Honolulu-based air carriers, whose reputation was made largely on their interisland service, also make the long-haul flights. Hawaiian Airlines, http://www.hawaiianair.com, flies between Honolulu and Seattle, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. Aloha Airlines, http://www.alohaair.com, offers an unusual new service between Honolulu and Oakland, California, near San Francisco.
There are flights from Vancouver on Canadian Airlines, http://www.cdnair.ca. From Down Under (Australia and New Zealand), you’ll find flights on Air New Zealand, Qantas, and United Airlines. From Japan, there are frequent flights on Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines. Philippine Airlines flies in from Manila, Korean Airlines from Seoul, and Garuda Airlines jets to Honolulu from Jakarta and Bali. Residents of Guam, Micronesia and vicinity, can fly to Hawaii on Continental Air Micronesia, affectionaly known as "Air Mike," a subsidiary company to Continental Airlines.
Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to sail to Hawaii by ship these days. An exception are on cruises which as part of longer itinerary continue on to other ports. A restrictive law prevents passengers from embarking in one American port and disembarking in another American port in a foreign ship. And since virtually all cruise ships are foreign, this makes a one-way sailing trip virtually impossible.
Each year there are a few cruises to Hawaii which call at two or three ports and then sail back with all passengers to San Diego or Ensenada, Mexico. These provide only a small taste of island life, however – probably too small to get the real flavor of Hawaii.
There is one week-long cruise which makes the most of a Hawaiian experience. American Hawaii Cruises, http://www.cruisehawaii.com, however, begins and ends its week-long island experience at Honolulu Harbor.
Travel writer Robert W. Bone is a journalist, editor and photographer. He is the author of "The Maverick Guide to Hawaii."
